Pork scandal blamed for low Senate rating
Senate President Franklin Drilon: Blaming PDAF. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines–Senate President Franklin Drilon on Wednesday blamed the pork barrel scandal that snared three senators for the chamber’s low satisfaction rating, even as he vowed to comply with the Supreme Court’s final ruling on the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).
“It can’t be denied that the alleged involvement of my three colleagues has affected the Senate. The dissatisfaction of the people is reflected in the survey because of this Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).”
Drilon said the challenge facing the Senate and also the public would be to “make a distinction between the Senate and individual senators.”
He said that when the second regular session of the 16th Congress opens on Monday, the senators would continue to “do our work,” without being distracted by the investigation of lawmakers implicated in the pork scam.
“We will continue to show that the Senate, as an institution, is separate from its members,” he said.
Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla are on trial on plunder and graft charges in connection with the P10-billion pork barrel, or PDAF, scam. The three are being detained at the Camp Crame police headquarters.
Net satisfaction fell
A Social Weather Station survey, conducted from June 27 to 30, showed that the Senate’s net satisfaction rating fell to plus 12 (46 percent satisfied minus 34 percent dissatisfied) from the plus 26 (54 percent satisfied minus 29 percent dissatisfied, rounded off) in March. This was considered “moderate.”
Remained moderate
Drilon’s net satisfaction rating remained moderate at plus 20 in June (50 percent satisfied minus 30 percent dissatisfied) from plus 17 (46 percent satisfied minus 29 percent) three months ago.
The conduct of the survey came ahead of the landmark July 1 Supreme Court decision voiding Malacañang’s claimed economic stimulus program, the DAP.
Voting 13 to 0, the high court justices struck down the DAP, a mechanism whereby ostensible “savings” in the national budget were pooled and allotted to high-impact projects to pump-prime the economy from 2011 to 2013.
Budget officials said the amount of savings that were pooled under the 2011 and 2012 budgets came to P136.75 billion but that only P114.57 billion of this was used.
Set to comply
Drilon said the Senate would comply with the high court decision once it becomes final and that the ruling should guide Congress in finalizing the 2015 national budget.
Drilon got the highest allocation of P100 million from the DAP in 2012 of the 20 senators that were asked by the executive branch to identify projects to be funded with DAP after the Senate convicted then Chief Justice Renato Corona in May 2012 for nondisclosure of wealth.
Drilon has explained that the P100 million was allotted for the construction of Iloilo Convention Center, and released a copy of the special allotment release order (Saro) from the Department of Public Works and Highways.
Reacting to observations why the project wasn’t on Malacañang’s list of DAP-funded projects, he said: “The Saro is in the name of the implementing agency (DPWH) and the list is a classification of the implementing agencies.”
Drilon said that the Iloilo Convention Center fell under the category of DWPH projects on the Malacañang list.
